Deaths in GR

[James W. Horton]

On Sun, 12 Mar 1995, Alec W Mchoul wrote:

> I responded as follows:
> 
> Can I ask you about that phrase, "a lot of people die"?
> Like whom?
> Who dies?
> Can you give me a list?
> I can think of one - and one only, more-or-less for sure.
> If you have more than one, you're doing better than most.
> 
> So here's a nice puzzle for Pynchon sleuths: who dies in GR, to be sure?
> The great John Krafft knew straightaway when I called him.
> Do you?
> 
> Alec McHoul


How for sure is for sure?  We are told Brigadier Pudding dies of an e 
coli infection, but from the "other side" arranges some sort of message 
in the flames of the fireplace during Mexico's and Bodine's infamous 
alliterative dinner menu.  So I would say the Brigadier is dead, even if
not nonexistant.  I believe we are also told Gwenhidwy and Spectro die, 
but I don't think there is ever any complete proof, no body.  Come to 
think of it, I can't think of any conclusive "bodily" proof of anyone's 
death in this novel.  This is very strange.  Maybe Pynchon was intending 
to write numerous spinoffs and sequels and just couldn't let any of the 
characters go--sort of like what happened in the comicbook world with 
multiple universes and multiple batmans and supermen, etc.  Perhaps 
volume two, SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW could begin with Tyrone waking up 
in his bed in Kansas and finding Nalline, Broderick, Hogan and his old pal 
Tantivy beside him (in the form of a fox terrier?) and crying "It was all 
a dream!  Or maybe just too much of that darned sodium pentathol!"
Everyone would be smiling and it would turn out that he hadn't been sold
for medical experiments after all.  But what would you do for the next 
eight hundred pages or so?  Imagine.  Then volume three would tell us 
that it was actually volume two that was the dream, and after a while things
would get so complicated that Pynchon would sell the rights to DC (of 
comicbook fame) and have them blow up enough of it with antimatter or 
something so he could start over fresh.  Is THAT what the V-2 is doing 
hanging over us with Gottfried inside it at the end of GR? 
	But if the Brigadier is definitely dead (despite hovering around
somewhere) what about Lyle Bland and his levitation into the next dimension?

				Cheers, jwh